M&D preambulatory profferings

[John Bailey]

I'd love to hear some words from those who already hold this book
close to their hearts. There are a lot of veteran P-listers who put
the novel near (even higher than!) Gravity's Rainbow in that friendly
fascist framework we call Favourites.

Me, I've never dig-dug the book the way I dig-do V. or GR or VL or BE
but I've always put that down to personal experience or font-size or
perhaps cultural materialism.

But mostly I've put it down to the fact that I've never been to the US
(outside of a TV or cinema screen). I have no deep, internalised,
situated knowledge of America and the shouted and whispered
conversation it has been having with its divided selves for so many
centuries. Some other non-US readers here have professed their
appreciation of the book so I'm not claiming this is an American-only
novel.

STILL: I would really love to hear people throw out a few lines
describing what this Pynchon novel is. I want to hear love songs to
the thing, though I feel my ear is tinny and poorly tuned. Ring true!
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l